The images and videos of Typhoon Maysak, taken from the International Space Station, on Tuesday, were simply breath-taking.
Posted on Twitter by Sam Cristoforetti, the Italian woman-astronaut living on ISS from November 2014 - and who will probably be living there till May 2015 – the images of the typhoon show us an enormous area of a swirling mass over Western Pacific; And, thereby, also the astonishing power of nature.
Ready to wreck Easter festivities, Typhoon Maysak’s eye is expected to make a landfall in Philippines, on the island of Luzon, late Saturday or Sunday morning.
Interestingly, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center which had given Maysak the prefix of ‘super’ on Tuesday afternoon, lowered its status on Thursday.
‘Super Typhoon Maysak’, is now downgraded to ‘Typhoon Maysak’ because the wind-speeds have lessened, and the storm has grown weaker. Which is a good thing. But it is still a Category 4 Hurricane.
A Category 4 hurricane, by the way, has wind-speeds of 209-251 km per hour (or 130-156 miles per hour). This, you will notice, is more than double the speed allowed, even for vehicles, in Bahrain.
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is, actually, a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind-speed. And hurricanes rated Category 3 and higher, can cause extensive damage to property and life.
Of course, hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are all the same. Storms.
If in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, it is a “hurricane”, in Northwest Pacific, it is a “typhoon”, and the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, a “cyclone”.
As different oceanic regions experience different ‘storm seasons’ in any given year, it is in fact convenient for us that the title and the name, can help us understand them faster.
Is it not interesting that the names of storms are, actually, already decided for the next few years?
And that in some oceanic regions, the countries in the region, contribute to the naming of storms?
For Atlantic storms, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) uses, six lists of names in the alphabetical order as they occur in a calendar year. The lists are used in rotation. They are re-cycled every six years. Which means the 2014 list of names will be used again in 2020.
Male and female names are now alternately used. But only from 1978.
Earlier, originally, from 1953, the US weather service used only women's names from A to W, leaving out Q, U, X, Y and Z. But following protests by women's liberation bodies in 60's and 70's, male names began to be used from 1978, alternately with female names.
The only time that there is a change in these lists is when a storm is so deadly or so costly that the future use of its name would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. The names would be retired.
Names such as Katrina (USA, 2005), Mitch (Honduras, 1998), Tracy (Darwin, 1974) and Haiyan (Philippines, 2013) are all retired.
Super Typhoon Haiyan, in November 2013, had killed more than 6,000 people and injured more than 27,000 others, when it hit Tacloban in Philippines.
Now, as Typhoon Maysak is getting ready to wreak havoc on another part of Phillipines, officials are evacuating coastal areas where tsunami-like storm can surge 10 feet high.
Frankly speaking, except heeding to early warning systems and leaving the places on which nature’s fury might soon be unleashed, as humans, often, we really cannot do much.
Posted on Twitter by Sam Cristoforetti, the Italian woman-astronaut living on ISS from November 2014 - and who will probably be living there till May 2015 – the images of the typhoon show us an enormous area of a swirling mass over Western Pacific; And, thereby, also the astonishing power of nature.
Ready to wreck Easter festivities, Typhoon Maysak’s eye is expected to make a landfall in Philippines, on the island of Luzon, late Saturday or Sunday morning.
Interestingly, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center which had given Maysak the prefix of ‘super’ on Tuesday afternoon, lowered its status on Thursday.
‘Super Typhoon Maysak’, is now downgraded to ‘Typhoon Maysak’ because the wind-speeds have lessened, and the storm has grown weaker. Which is a good thing. But it is still a Category 4 Hurricane.
A Category 4 hurricane, by the way, has wind-speeds of 209-251 km per hour (or 130-156 miles per hour). This, you will notice, is more than double the speed allowed, even for vehicles, in Bahrain.
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is, actually, a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind-speed. And hurricanes rated Category 3 and higher, can cause extensive damage to property and life.
Of course, hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are all the same. Storms.
If in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, it is a “hurricane”, in Northwest Pacific, it is a “typhoon”, and the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, a “cyclone”.
As different oceanic regions experience different ‘storm seasons’ in any given year, it is in fact convenient for us that the title and the name, can help us understand them faster.
Is it not interesting that the names of storms are, actually, already decided for the next few years?
And that in some oceanic regions, the countries in the region, contribute to the naming of storms?
For Atlantic storms, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) uses, six lists of names in the alphabetical order as they occur in a calendar year. The lists are used in rotation. They are re-cycled every six years. Which means the 2014 list of names will be used again in 2020.
Male and female names are now alternately used. But only from 1978.
Earlier, originally, from 1953, the US weather service used only women's names from A to W, leaving out Q, U, X, Y and Z. But following protests by women's liberation bodies in 60's and 70's, male names began to be used from 1978, alternately with female names.
The only time that there is a change in these lists is when a storm is so deadly or so costly that the future use of its name would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. The names would be retired.
Names such as Katrina (USA, 2005), Mitch (Honduras, 1998), Tracy (Darwin, 1974) and Haiyan (Philippines, 2013) are all retired.
Super Typhoon Haiyan, in November 2013, had killed more than 6,000 people and injured more than 27,000 others, when it hit Tacloban in Philippines.
Now, as Typhoon Maysak is getting ready to wreak havoc on another part of Phillipines, officials are evacuating coastal areas where tsunami-like storm can surge 10 feet high.
Frankly speaking, except heeding to early warning systems and leaving the places on which nature’s fury might soon be unleashed, as humans, often, we really cannot do much.
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